Eagle River - Small businesses face plenty of unique challenges. Now, they need to be aware of an official-looking scam.Yesterday, the Department of Financial Institutions issued a warning not to submit any information to groups requesting an Annual Meeting Minutes form.Letters from Corporate Records Service set-off the warning signals. C-W Art and Office Supply was one of the businesses to get a letter.Owner Gail Newitt said they asked her to fill out a form that came with a big price-tag.
"Which is usually a few lines on a piece of paper. So for 125-dollars that's just ridiculous. And it also said this needs to be filed with the government, and the government does not care about the minutes of your cooperate meetings."Eagle River Police Chief Mark Vander Bloomen has seen similar scams online.He knows the most successful Internet crooks use this practice to get fast money."What they're doing is not illegal, but the minute you take these types of groups or businesses and put them on the internet, it'll just pop up one return after another.--I was scammed."Corporate Records Services has also caused problems in Maine, Indiana and Tennessee.